a. (§13.72) Pre-2011
“Permanent partial general disability exists when the employee is disabled in a manner which is partial in character and permanent in quality and which is not covered by the schedule in K.S.A. § 44-510d . . . .” Kan. Stat. Ann. § 44-510e(a) (1996). The employee is entitled to the greater of the functional impairment or the work disability. Id.
Functional impairment means the extent, expressed as a percentage, of the loss of a portion of the total physiological capabilities of the human body as established by competent medical evidence and based on the fourth edition of the American Medical Association Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment [until January 1, 2015, but for injuries occurring on and after January 1, 2015, shall be combined pursuant to the sixth edition of the American Medical Association Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment] [ see Kan. Stat. Ann. § 44-510e(a)(2)(B) (2013)], if the impairment is contained therein.
Id.
Note: See the note regarding Johnson v. U.S. Food Service, 427 P.3d 996 (Kan. Ct. App. 2018), and the Sixth Edition of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, in §13.69 above.
Although the determination for functional impairment remains the same, work disability is the:
extent, expressed as a percentage, to which the employee, in the opinion of the physician, has lost the ability to perform the work tasks that the employee...
